Tech Giants Following Through on Green Pledges

Climate Counts released its second annual scorecard this morning, ranking many of the world's largest companies based on their commitment toward reversing climate change. The study revealed that 84 percent of those included improved their scores from last year.

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Climate Counts released its second annual scorecard this morning, ranking many of the world's largest companies based on their commitment toward reversing climate change. According to the organization, an impressive 84 percent of the companies included in the study have improved their scores since the study was first conducted in June of last year.

"Company transparency is critical to allowing consumers to make good decisions," said Wood Turner, the project's director. "The time for companies to just say 'trust us, we're good on climate' has passed, consumers want to see the proof behind the green claims. They want to know it's not just marketing talk, but real substantive action."

The tech sector nabbed the highest overall score in the study: 56 out of 100 possible points. Contrast that with the food-service sector, which scored the lowest average at 11.5--with zeroes going to Burger King and the parent companies of Olive Garden and Taco Bell.

IBM led the electronics pack with an impressive 77 out of 100, pushing last year's leader, Canon, into second place at 74 and earning IBM the third-best score in the study across sectors. Toshiba, HP, and Sony rounded out the top five, with scores of 70, 68, and 68, respectively.

On the other side of things, Dell scored 10th with a 49, Nokia was 11th at 37, and trailing behind at 12th (of 12), Apple scored an abysmal 11. But even the Cupertino company's score was an improvement over last year's score of 2, thanks in part to Apple's greener hardware initiatives.

The average for the Internet/Software category was decidedly lower than its electronics counterpart. Google led the pack of five companies with an impressive 55, up 38 points over last year--the largest increase in the study. In second place with 38 points, Microsoft also managed to improve its score, thanks in part to improved greenhouse-gas-emission assessments. Microsoft's old buddy Yahoo! came in a hair's breadth lower, with 37 points.

Like last year, the bottom spots were occupied by Amazon and eBay, each of which scored a mere 5 points.

The companies featured in the study are judged on the following four benchmarks:

1. How well does the company measure its climate footprint?
2. How much has the company done to reduce its climate footprint?
3. Does the company explicitly support (or suggest a desire to block) progressive climate change legislation?
4. How clearly and comprehensively does the company publicly disclose its climate protection efforts?

Brian Heater came to PCMag in 2006, after working at Laptop Magazine as a staff writer. His writing has appeared in Spin, The Onion, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Press, The Oklahoma Gazette, The Metro Santa Cruz, Heeb, and a lot of music magazines you’ve probably never heard of. He also runs the comics site The Daily Cross Hatch, which he strongly recommends you check out. One time Brian met the president. He had green hair back then. Long story.
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